Sir martin gilbert, jewish historian who defended pius xii, dies

By Rosa Doherty. Leading historian Sir Martin Gilbert has died of a heart condition which he had suffered since Sir Martin, the official biographer of Winston Churchill and author of 80 studies on subjects including Israeli and Jewish history, was a member of the Iraq Inquiry panel. He said: "Can I say with great sadness that I have to tell the committee that Sir Martin Gilbert died peacefully last night after a long and serious illness.

Sir Martin was born in London in Nine months after the outbreak of the Second World War he was one of many children to be evacuated to Canada as part of the British efforts to safeguard them. He graduated in with a first-class BA in modern history. He married fellow Shoah historian Esther Goldberg in He has one daughter with first wife Helen Constance Robinson, and two sons with his second wife, Susan Sacher.

One of his later works was a history of the Jewish people originally written on postcards to an Indian lady he had adopted as an aunt. He was always conscious of the biblical imperative of Zakhor: memory as religious duty. Unhesitatingly I chose Martin Gilbert. He had more friends throughout the world than anyone I know, and he kept in touch with them all.

Baruch dayan haemet.

Sir Martin Gilbert, a widely

We will miss him dearly and our thoughts are very much with his family. Home News. He was